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plant, long overlooked, flowering at an early age, was 

 named by Gronovius after its prototype Linnaeus." 



Specific names should be formed on similar principles to the 

 generic ones ; but some exceptions are allowed, not only without 

 inconvenience, but with great advantage. Such as express the 

 essential specific character are unexceptionable ; but perhaps 

 those which express something certain, but not comprehended 

 in that character, are still more useful, as conveying additional 

 information, for which reason it is often useful that vernacular 

 names should not be mere translations of the Latin ones. 



" Botanists occasionally adapt a specific name to some histor- 

 ical fact belonging to the plant or to the person whose name it 

 bears, as Linnaea borealis from the great botanist of the north ; 

 Murraea exotica after one of his favorite pupils, a foreigner-; 

 Brotvallia demisa and elata, from a botanist of humble origin and 

 character, who afterwards became a lofty bishop, and in whose 

 work upon water I find the following quotation from Seneca in 

 the hand-writing of Linnaeus : ' Many might attain wisdom if 

 they did not suppose they had already attained it.' In like 

 manner Biiffonia temdfolia is well known to be a satire on the 

 slender botanical pretensions of the great French zoologist, as 

 the Hillia parasitica of Jacquin, though perhaps not meant, is an 

 equally just one upon our pompous Sir John Hill. I mean not 

 to approve of such satires. They stain the purity of our lovely 

 science. If a botanist does not deserve commemoration, let 

 him sink peaceably into oblivion. It savours of malignity to 

 make his crown a crown of thorns, and if the application be un- 

 just, it is truly diabolical." 



Jean Broadhurst. 



Teachers College. 



